


The Dollhouse

by champagneandliterature



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Creepy, F/M, Families of Choice, Fluff, Horror, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love, M/M, Pain, Pureblood Culture (Harry Potter), fucked up families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28049430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/champagneandliterature/pseuds/champagneandliterature
Summary: Andromeda is living her best life with her husband Ted five years after she left home. An unexpected Christmas gift proves to her why she left in the first place.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 18
Collections: Twistmas 2020 - A Dark Remix Xmas Fest





	The Dollhouse

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [Twistmas2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Twistmas2020) collection. 



> Written for The Slytherin Cabal's Twistmas 2020  
> Prompt: Dollhouse  
> Thanks a million to my beta PhoenixofSlytherin, you're the best and thanks for always supporting my craziness!  
> Follow me on tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/blog/champagneandliterature

To say that Andromeda Tonks nee’ Black had left her parent’s home in a hurry was an understatement. She had graduated Hogwarts and spent a month at home with her parents trying to figure out how to tell them she was engaged to a muggle-born wizard, who was not her cousin that they had arranged for her to marry. Her fiance Ted had been frantically knocking at the door for close to an hour before the house elf had answered it. Ted had received a howler from Andromeda’s mother Druella, informing him that Andromeda was to be married to someone else and that he should keep his “dirty blood” away from their family or face the consequences. 

Andromeda came running for the door as the elf opened it, with a small bag in her hand, she took one last look at her childhood home and they apparated away. She had only been able to grab a few pieces of clothing, a couple of keepsakes, and her wand. She had longed to take her beloved dollhouse, but it just wasn’t practical in the moment. That had all happened five years ago. In the meantime, Ted and Andromeda were married and were living happily together in their home in the English countryside, but every Christmas Andromeda thought about her childhood home a little bit, and about the dollhouse, she had shared with her sisters when they were children. 

The dollhouse itself was a perfect replica of 12 Grimmauld Place, the ancestral home of the Black family, and it had been passed down to Andromeda and her sisters from their mother and Aunt Walburga. It was the only thing that had brought her true joy as a child, and it was the only thing that she and her sisters, Bellatrix and Narcissa had enjoyed together when they were small. It was the one thing she had wished that she could have somehow brought along with her into her new life. Nothing else mattered, including her family themselves, save for her Uncle Alphard and cousin Sirius. They were the only two people in the Black family she even spoke to these days, as her Aunt Walburga had blasted her name off of the family tapestry and she had been officially disinherited. It was becoming increasingly rare for her to have communication with Alphard, as tensions were rising and people were picking sides in what was certainly going to become a war. Her eighteen-year-old cousin Sirius was also disowned by the family, like her, after running away from home. Sirius came to see her and Ted as often as he could when he was on break from Hogwarts, but he was in his final year and lived with his friend James when he wasn’t at school, and teenagers always seemed to have more important things to do with their friends than visit with their family. 

Two weeks before Christmas a very large package arrived on Ted and Andromeda’s front porch addressed to Andromeda. They brought it into their living room and opened the attached card. 

_ Andromeda,  _

_ Your father and I have decided to send you the dollhouse you and your sisters so loved as children. I was of the opinion that we burn it just like your aunt burned you off the family tapestry but your father convinced me that such a priceless family heirloom shouldn’t be disposed of in such a way. It’s only fitting that we send it to you so that you can be reminded of what you are missing and what you will never have again since you decided to leave this family and marry the mudblood. You are truly no longer my daughter and no longer a sister to Narcissa and Bellatrix. Enjoy a miniature version of what could have been yours if you had just agreed to marry Sirius this coming summer when he finished school. You are both stains on the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black.  _

_ -Druella Black _

Andromeda had started laughing when she had finished reading the card. 

“How is this funny in any way, love?” Ted asked her, looking more concerned the more she laughed. 

“It just is, Ted. They expected me to marry my cousin, which is not only disgusting, but it’s why most of my family is mad, to begin with. To marry a boy who they have to know doesn’t exactly prefer women, and who openly defied the Blacks for years before he ran away. But, he is the heir, and Bellatrix and Narcissa were already promised to other men, and what better way to carry on the Black name than marry off the heir to one of his cousins? It’s disgusting and it’s a pure-blood custom and I’m happy that I don’t have to be a part of it. But, this is actually the one thing I regret not being able to bring from home. It’s the one happy thing I remember from my childhood. My mother actually did me a huge favor by sending it to me and the irony is just too much!” Andromeda laughed again loudly as Ted rubbed her back, feeling very uneasy about the entire situation.

A few days later Ted found Andromeda in the study inspecting the elaborate dollhouse. “Is that what Grimmauld actually looks like inside?” Ted asked. 

“Yes, love. It’s an exact magical replica. Everything that is going on inside the real house happens inside of the dollhouse too. Except for the people.” She answered. 

“What do you mean except the people?” he inquired. 

“Well, there’s a spell on the dollhouse and another on the house itself. So if a picture is hung up, it appears in the dollhouse too. If dinner is made and put on the dining room table, a tiny version of it appears on the table in the dining room table in the dollhouse. If an owl comes by with post, a tiny owl comes by in the dollhouse.” Andromeda said. 

“Darling, you do realize this is the creepiest thing ever, but also a terribly clever bit of magic don’t you?” 

“It’s incredible, isn’t it? And like I said, since the spell doesn’t work to track people, you don’t have to see tiny versions of my terrible family in there. Even before Cissa, Bella, and I could do magic properly we always had this dollhouse as our place where we could see magic while we were playing. And we spent countless hours with it. Aunt Walburga did have little figures made of us to put inside of it, but I guess mother didn’t want me to have them or they just got lost over the years, because they aren’t inside it now, and I’ve looked everywhere.” 

“It’s brilliant if a little strange. I hope it’s making you happy and not just sad about your childhood.”

“I’d never be sad for my childhood, Ted. This does bring me joy. It makes me remember the only happy times I had as a child.”

Ted kissed her temple. “As long as it makes you happy, I’m happy to keep it in here out of my sight.” Andromeda looked at him incredulously. “Andy, you have to admit, it’s creepy as hell. There are heads on that wall. That’s just not on.” Ted said. 

“Well, I’ll admit it has its faults, but I just love it. And mother thought it would bring me pain, but really it’s just making me almost giddy. I can’t wait to have a little girl of our own that can play with this.”

Ted went immediately pale in the face and started tugging on the collar of his shirt. “Are you...are you trying to tell me something?” he gulped. 

“Of course not, love! I just thought that in the future, far, far in the future we’d start having children.” She said as she put her hand on his cheek. 

“Right,” he breathed a sigh of relief. “In the future. Sorry, I just, I got a little panicked there. Of course, I want to have children, but I don’t want to share you quite yet,” he said with a devious smile on his face. 

“I don’t want to share you yet either,” Andromeda said as she kissed him fiercely, pushed him down onto the sofa and straddled his waist. “But there’s no saying we can’t practice for it now.” She smirked as she peeled off her shirt. 

Christmas Eve found Andromeda and Ted in their home entertaining Sirius and his boyfriend Remus Lupin. Remus looked nervous as he sat on the sofa in the study and slowly drank his butterbeer with Ted sitting across from him on the loveseat, while Andromeda and Sirius talked in the kitchen. 

“You know Andy, you could have burnt the thing,” Sirius said very matter of factly. “It’s ghastly. I can’t believe you would want a tiny version of that hellish place in your house.”

“Siri, you don’t understand, love. It’s the only fun we had as children. I just loved it so much. I will admit, yes, it’s weird, and to be honest, Ted hates the damn thing, but it’s really the coolest bit of magic and I want my children to be able to play with it and to have choices in that house that we didn’t have.” 

“I guess you’re right. So, what do you think of Remus? He’s the fucking greatest, isn’t he? He’s so absolutely perfect right?” Sirius asked enthusiastically. 

“He seems like a great kid, who’s good for you. He also seems scared shitless. He knows about Ted being muggle-born right? He doesn’t have to try to impress him.”

“He does know about Ted. He also knows about you and that we were supposed to be married, he knows why I left home, so he knows how twisted our family is. I think it’s honestly the shock of being able to meet someone from my family that’s got him so nervous. I don’t think he thought he’d ever have to have awkward parent moments because of what happened with me.”

“Hey! We are very young and very hip! There will be no awkward “parent” moments from us!”

“Really? Ted already asked him what his intentions were with me! How is that not an awkward parent moment, Andy?!”

Andromeda laughed. “He was just taking the piss. I told him to give Remus a bit of a hard time. He didn’t mean anything by it. I will be honest here Sirius, Remus seems a bit out of your league. He seems smart, polite, helpful, and if he’s not a prefect I’d be shocked to the core. He’s got to have some deep dark secret beneath that oversized cardigan”

Sirius chuckled “You don’t know the half of it,” he muttered as Andromeda turned her back. 

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing, Andy. He is just your normal run of the mill, half-blood Gryffindor prefect with an obsession with bad boys.”

Andromeda rolled her eyes and stifled her laugh with a cough “And who pray tell, is the bad boy he’s obsessed with? It can’t possibly be you, dear. Long hair, tight jeans, and Bowie tee-shirt does not a bad boy make.”

“Hey! I wear combat boots too! And I’m very edgy!”

“Keep telling yourself that cousin,” Andromeda said as she grabbed a bottle of Firewhisky and four glasses. “Let’s go save Remus before Ted asks him if you two are being careful in the bedroom.” 

Sirius paled. There was no way Ted would ask that, was there? He trailed behind Andromeda to the study, plopped down on the couch next to Remus, and put his hand on his boyfriend’s knee. Remus tensed immediately and glared at Sirius. 

Andromeda was setting down the Firewhisky and glasses. “Remus, we are so glad that Sirius brought you to meet us. Ted and I are so happy for the two of you. And I want to apologize for the grilling questions, we just wanted to have a little fun with you. I hope it didn’t make you too uncomfortable.” Andromeda said as Remus visibly relaxed. 

“No, Andromeda. It’s been lovely to meet Sirius’ family and you didn’t make me uncomfortable in the least.” He answered with a polite smile. 

Sirius started chuckling. “Of course they did, Moony! It’s ok though, you don’t have to admit it,” he added, as Remus glared at him. 

“Like I said, Ted, Andromeda, it’s been great to meet some of Sirius’ family. It’ll be nice to know someone at the funeral I’ll have to hold for him after I murder him.” Remus said dryly and they all dissolved into laughter. 

Andromeda filled the glasses and passed them out. “A toast then, to my “bad boy” little cousin and his very amusing boyfriend!”

They all drank their firewhisky and it magically refilled in their glasses. The rest of the evening went in much the same way, drinking and joking around with each other. Andromeda couldn’t have been happier. “Boys, I insist you stay here tonight. There’s no way you can apparate in the state you’re in. You can stay in our extra bedroom.” She said. 

“Andy, we are fi..” Sirius hiccuped. “Fine. We can totally get back to Remus’ parents.”

“Andromeda, we definitely can’t apparate like this,” Remus said as he pulled Sirius closer to him. “I’m so sorry to impose. My parents don’t have the floo system in their house. It freaks my mom out. We’d be happy and very grateful to stay.” Remus said, sounding like he was trying very, very hard to appear sober. 

“Of course dear. Why don’t you two head to bed and we’ll see you off with some hangover potion and tea in the morning eh?” Andromeda replied. 

“Thanks, Andy. You’re the best. Isn’t he the sexy...sexiest thing you’ve ever seen? I can’t wait to get him to bed,” Sirius slurred as he started pulling his boyfriend’s hand to lead him up the stairs to the guest bedroom. 

“Sirius!” Remus hissed and turned to Andromeda and Ted. “We won’t, we won’t be doing anything untoward in your house, I swear,” Remus said embarrassed. 

“He’s gorgeous, Sirius. And we know, Remus. There’s no way you could possibly get up to anything in the state he’s in anyway.” Ted said with snark. 

“Oi! I can get it up…” Sirius said and was promptly cut off by Remus’ hand over his mouth. 

“Thank you again for letting us stay. We’ll see you in the morning.” Remus said as he led Sirius up the stairs. 

“They are something else aren’t they?” Andromeda asked.

“Yeah, they really are. Andy if your whole family was like Sirius they’d be the most fun family in the whole of Britain. I’m ready to head to bed too, how are you doing, love?”

“I’ll be in soon. I just want to check the dollhouse to see something and then I’ll be up.” She replied. Ted kissed her cheek and headed up the stairs, chuckling slightly as he heard Remus trying to get Sirius into bed. 

Andromeda walked over to the dollhouse and looked into the tiny sitting room that was identical to the one in Grimmauld Place. The Christmas stockings had been hung on the mantle above the fireplace, one for Walburga, one for Orion, and one for Regulus. It made her heart sink to see that they really had given up on Sirius. But, she had gifts for him tomorrow and he would have them from Remus, James, James’ parents and his other friends too. Neither of them needed the Black family to have an actual family, she thought as she turned off the lights and headed to bed. 

“Merlin, Re, I’ve never been this hungover in my life,” Sirius said as he swung his feet slowly off of the bed and held his head in his hands. 

“Well, you drank all the Firewhisky in Shropshire last night, so I’m guessing that’s why you feel so awful,” Remus replied dryly as he went to rub Sirius’ back. “Let’s get dressed, head downstairs and get you a hangover potion and say our goodbyes. My parents are expecting us at eleven for brunch, so we have a little time for you to apologize to your cousin and her husband for all of the vulgar things you said about what you were, and I quote, “going to do to Remus’ beautiful arse”, last night.” Remus said as he stood up and put his hands out to help Sirius do the same. 

“Oh Moony, I’d say I’m sorry, but we both know I meant every word. How the hell are you not in the same shape right now? I saw you drink your fair share.”

“Werewolf metabolism.” He replied dryly. “Come on, love. Let’s get you back to normal eh?”

Sirius nodded, kissed his boyfriend lightly on the lips, and got dressed. The boys headed down to the kitchen and were met with silence. “They must be having a lie-in. But I see they did leave out the hangover potion for us. Why don’t you take some and we can leave them be and head over to my parents early? We can always stop back tomorrow on our way to the Potter’s.”

“Sounds good Moons,” Sirius replied as he gulped down the potion. “Ugh, it tastes like shit, but it sure does cure what ails you.”

“What ails you? Sirius, the brown bottle flu isn’t a real sickness.” Remus replied with a chuckle. 

“You’re lucky I love you Remus or else I would take your sarcasm to heart. Let’s head out. Happy Christmas, love.” Sirius said as they headed for the door. 

Once outside Remus grabbed Sirius around the waist, kissed him soundly, “happy Christmas, Sirius,” he said and apparated them to his parent’s home. 

Andromeda woke with a start. It was still very dark in their room, making her think that it must still be night. She rolled over and realized with a start that Ted wasn’t beside her. She reached for the nightstand to grab her wand, but it wasn’t there. Come to think of it, the nightstand wasn’t there either. Andromeda wasn’t the best at wandless magic but she said “Lumos,” with confidence and a tiny ball of light appeared in front of her. “Ted,” she said softly, but there was no reply. “Ted, where are you,” she called a little louder. 

“I’m right here, Andy,” he replied, and a bigger ball of light-headed her way. Ted had always been better with wandless magic than she was, so his Lumos produced more light than hers. 

“What’s going on? I can’t find my wand.” She said, feeling a little panicked. 

“Well, from what I can tell, we aren’t in our bedroom. I don’t know where the hell we are, but it’s not familiar to me.”

“Aren’t there any lights we can turn on?”

“Not that I can seem to find.” 

“Push your magic out and see if you can light up the room.” Ted concentrated for a few moments and then the room lit up. The room was large with a fireplace on the opposite wall as the bed. The bed itself was an old, very expensive looking, overly large, four-poster. The sheets were made of silk. The duvet was heavy and felt like a tapestry. There were windows with dark green velvet curtains on one side of the room, and a bureau and closet on the other. Andromeda opened the heavy curtains and peered out. She gasped loudly, “Ted, you are not going to believe this. I know where we are. We’re home.”

“Andy, we are not at home. This is not our house. Are you feeling quite well?”

“Just listen to me. We are at home...kind of. Come here, will you? And look out the window.” 

Ted made his way to the windows and looked outside. “Buggering fuck! Andy! That’s our study! No way! There’s no fucking way!” Ted exclaimed and stared at her with his mouth agape. 

“That’s why she must have sent it to me. She spelled the fucking dollhouse to suck us inside! That raging cunt! I can’t believe it! She trapped us in a tiny version of Grimmauld. I knew my mother wanted revenge, but this is beyond extreme, even for her.”

“What the hell do we do now? How do we get out? We don’t have wands. We don’t know what spell she used. Do you think it’ll wear off?”

“Honestly, no. If she did this, she meant it to be permanent. She doesn’t do things in half measures. The only person I’ve ever met that is more conniving than her is my Aunt Walburga, luckily mother is only half as mad.” 

Ted scoffed, “Yeah, thank Merlin for that,” he muttered. “We’ll starve here. We’ll die!”

“Ted, we’ll figure this out. As I said, anything they do in the real house is replicated here in miniature. If there's owl post we could maybe get a letter out to Sirius. Shit! Sirius! Do you think he and Remus are still here? Can you cast Sonorus and maybe we can get them to hear us?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Ted said, “Sonorus.” He tried but it didn’t change the sound or the volume of his voice very much at all. “Sorry, love, it’s not exactly a spell you practice doing wandless.” 

Andromeda looked at him as she slipped her hand into his. “It’s ok. We’ll find another way. Let’s go down to the kitchen and see if there’s anything to eat.” The hallway was dark but there was a little light coming from the sconces on the walls. “Ted, be very careful what you touch here. There are a great many beautiful things in this house, but a lot of them are deadly, and I have to believe there are some things that have curses against muggle-borns on them.”

“Would the magic of the dollhouse replicate curses too?” Ted asked. 

“I wouldn’t put it past my family to make it work that way.” Ted nodded and followed her down the long staircase. The house was unnerving and seemed like a shrine to dark magic, but he had to admit that it did hold a beauty of its own. The staircase ended in what looked like the main foyer of the house. “This is the foyer,” Andromeda said, Ted looked at her incredulously “What? We’re trapped here until we can find a way out. I might as well give you a tour. Like I said, this is the front foyer, the rooms on this floor are the formal dining room, library, and ballroom. The second floor where we were has two guest rooms, a drawing-room, and my uncle’s office. The third floor has four more bedrooms, one of which is my aunt and uncle’s room. The fourth floor is where Sirius and Regulus’ rooms are. There is an attic that even I have never been brave enough to venture into. And downstairs from us are the kitchens, the house-elf quarters and if you can believe it there’s actually a bit of dungeon there as well.”

“There’s a dungeon?”

“Yes. It doubles as a potions lab. I told you my family was dark, Ted.” 

Ted nodded “I know, I just never thought it could be as bad as you told me.” He answered. 

“It’s actually much worse than I told you. I never thought I’d have to show you all of it. And now we’re stuck in a strange, tiny version of it.” 

Ted turned Andromeda to face him. “We’ll figure it out, Andy. There’s always a way out, and we’ll find it.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. “Now, I guess let’s keep heading to the kitchens and regroup there.” She led him down a very long hallway and down another set of stairs to yet another long hallway. Ted looked around. “Are those…” he trailed off. 

“Yes, they are house elf heads,” she gestured to the heads mounted on the wall of the hallway. “They have all served the House of Black. Rumor has it that they cut off their heads when they’re too old to hold tea trays anymore. The elves themselves see this wall as a place of honor.” 

“That has got to be the most twisted thing I’ve ever heard,” Ted said in shocked awe. 

“That’s just scratching the surface of the twisted things that go on in this house, love.”

They finally reached the kitchens and Andromeda looked around. There wasn’t any food on the table so she started opening cupboards until she found something suitable. She pulled out a tea caddy and some biscuits, found the kettle and filled it at the sink, and started it on the burner. “This is just unreal. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that we are in a dollhouse that’s sitting in the study in our house. You’re making tea for Merlin’s sake!” Ted said as he took a seat at the old wooden table in the center of the room. 

“I know. Let’s just have some tea and biscuits and try to put a plan together.”They sat there at the table drinking tea, eating biscuits, and staring at each other in shock. “Well,” Andromeda said to break the silence. “We could wait for an owl to come with the post and try to send something out to Sirius or my uncle Alphard.” She suggested. 

“Do your aunt and uncle get a lot of post?” Ted asked. 

“Fair point. And I think my uncle Orion gets most of his post to the window in his office. It’s generally locked as well. Like I said, this is a weird mirror of the actual house. If the lock is on a door there, it’ll be on it here. And Orion has been known to put all manner of nasty curses on the door if you try to get into it. Sirius tried once, right before he ran away and was hit with a cruciatus curse and was unconscious for two days before it wore off fully.” She said looking down into her tea.

“That’s horrible. That poor kid.” Ted replied. 

“He’s safe now, Ted. I mean for the most part. I thought we both were. Ok, so owl post is probably not going to be an option. What else have we got?”

“What about the house elves? Can we leave a note for them and maybe they can help?” Ted asked

“I’d be hard pressed to believe that Kreacher would help us. He’s insanely loyal to my aunt. And since I’ve been disinherited and burned off the tapestry, Kreacher would feel no loyalty towards me. For all intents and purposes, I’m not a member of the family anymore. There’s got to be something we’re not thinking of.” She said as the table cleared itself, chairs started moving around and a fire started in the hearth. 

“What the hell is happening?” Ted asked. 

“Kreacher must be in here getting things ready for the day. Shit! I don’t know if he’ll know we’re  _ here _ . We have to get out of here before we get in the way of whatever he’s doing. He’ll be able to feel us, we’ll feel kind of like ghosts to him,” She said as she quickly stood and headed for the door. 

“Ow! Fuck!” Ted yelled as he put a hand over his right shoulder. “I’m burnt! How the fuck did I get burnt!” He ran over to Andromeda’s side at the door to the hallway. 

“He must know something’s off. Elf magic is different, they can sense things wizards can’t.” Andromeda said as she saw hundreds of lumps of molten coal from the fire fling themselves around the room. They watched in awe for a few moments before retreating down the hall and into the foyer. “Let me see your shoulder.” Ted tried to lift the sleeve of his shirt up and over the wound but a bit of it was melted into his skin. Andromeda whispered a quiet “Diffindo '' to rip the arm of the shirt off. It worked, but there was still a bit left on Ted’s wound.

“Fuck!” He cursed as it happened. It hadn’t really hurt, but it was shocking and it left a little cut underneath the burn wound. 

“Sorry love! It was the only charm I could think of that I could use to get the shirt sleeve off. Now, sit here on this bench, I’m going to pop up to the bathroom on the fourth floor. I know Sirius used to keep dittany in there and I’m sure Regulus needs it here and there. Just sit tight till I get back,” she said as she apparated away. 

“No problem, just apparate away, leave me alone here in the world’s most fucked up house,” Ted muttered to himself. He was in a lot of pain and couldn’t wait for Andromeda to get back to him. 

Andromeda apparated to the hallway in front of Sirius’ bedroom. She had never been more thankful that she had learned to apparate without a wand before. She opened the door to Sirius’ room and stopped in her tracks. It looked as if nothing had changed since she had last seen it five years ago. All of his muggle motorcycle posters were still on the walls and the entire room was still decorated in crimson and gold. It made her hurt for him and for what his parents had done to him. She crossed the room quickly and made her way into the en suite bathroom that was shared with Regulus’ room. She stopped short, the water in the shower was running. Shit, she thought, Regulus must be in the shower! She saw his shadow moving behind the curtain and she slowly and carefully pulled open the medicine cabinet, grabbed the dittany, and slinked out of the room hoping that he hadn’t heard her. She apparated back to Ted. He was still sitting on the bench in the foyer. He looked pale and scared and in obvious pain. “They know we’re here, love. Someone knows we’re here.” Ted said quietly. 

“What are you talking about? The magic doesn’t work that way. We just kind of feel like ghosts to them in the real house, and Merlin knows the real house is haunted. I don’t think they’d notice a couple more ghosts.” She said as she started applying the dittany to his burns. 

Ted hissed as he felt his skin heal “The portraits, Andy. The one across the hall. She’s gone now. She said her name was Elladora. I begged her to tell someone where we were. She told me that if you and I were stuck here that we must deserve it. And of course that I must be the luckiest mudblood in the world to be in the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black and not be dead yet.”

“Fuck. My mother and Walburga must know about this whole thing. I bet they set wards to alert them when the spell to trap us worked. How’s your shoulder? Better now?” She looked at Ted with concern. 

“Much better thanks. I can move it, and it doesn’t look like charred meat so I’m probably good.” He smiled trying to joke lightly. “Are there any portraits in this house that would help us?” He asked. 

“There’s one in the bedroom that is across from where we were. It’s of Phineas Nigellus. He was the least liked headmaster to ever grace Hogwarts. I don’t know if he’ll help but it’s worth a shot. The thing is, we’d have to catch him while he’s in the portrait. I’m going to assume he spends most of his time in the real house and in Dumbledore’s office. We could head up there and check though just in case he decides to see the goings on in a dollhouse version of his former home.” 

Ted stood up “Well dear, lead the way. There aren’t many other options at this point.” They walked up the large staircase and down the narrow hall to the bedroom. And as expected Phineas was not in his portrait. “You said there’s a library, right? Maybe we can find something in the books in there that can help us.” 

“There’s a lot of dark magic in those books. We need to be extremely careful about what we pick up and what we open.”

“You’re talking as if the books are sentient.”

“We’re trapped in a sentient dollhouse, I had thought it would go without saying that some of the books are sentient.”

“Point well made. Well, you want to keep skulking around or apparate us there?”

Andromeda grabbed his hand and apparated to the middle of the large library. The room was surrounded by bookshelves that rose from the floor to the very high ceiling and each case was filled with hundreds of books. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace, and they could hear the faint, eerie tinkling of a music box coming from somewhere in the room. “Ugh, who would have a music box that sounded so awful,” Ted remarked as he yawned. “I’m exhausted. How long do you think we’ve been trapped here?” Ted asked as he sat on a nearby sofa. 

“Shit! We have to find it. I know you’re tired Ted, I am too. But it’s the blasted music box that’s doing it to us. If we don’t close it we’ll fall asleep and likely never wake up. Someone in the real house must have wound it. Help me look, please!” Ted stood up and they both started looking for the music box. “Just be careful what else you touch,” Andromeda said. She looked over at him as he started to open an antique snuff box that was on the end table. “Stop! That is full of ground wartcap!” He closed the lid quickly and moved away from it. 

“Why would they have that? It turns your skin hard and chalky like stone.” Andromeda ignored his question and kept looking on all of the shelves of books to see if she could find the music box, her fatigue increasing by the second. They searched the shelves being conscious not to touch the books themselves They searched the shelves near the windows that held the most priceless artifacts and antiques. Ted opened the drawer of the desk that sat in the corner and there he found the music box. He pulled it out and closed the lid. 

“Thank Merlin! I feel better already,” Andromeda exclaimed. “Ok now, we need to figure out what books we can check. I have to admit, I never spent much time here when we visited when we were young, so I’ve no idea how it’s organized. It certainly doesn’t look alphabetical.” 

“What if we just start at the top and work our way down?” Ted suggested. 

“I guess that’s as good of a plan as any,” Andromeda answered and started climbing up the rolling ladder attached to the closest shelf to her. 

Ted did the same across the room from her. “Magick Moste Evile, The Nightshade Guide to Necromancy. Well if we’re trying to do evil magic or raise the dead, we’re in luck,” he said sarcastically. 

“I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m not sure there’s another way,” Andromeda said as she slipped a little on the ladder and the book fell out of her hands and opened on the floor below. Dark black smoke started to flow out of the book and they both heard people screaming in agony. Andromeda scrambled down the ladder and stared at the book for a moment. The smoke was billowing out now and moving towards the ceiling it looked like it was starting to form some kind of tornado, and all the while the screaming was getting louder and louder. She ran to Ted and pulled at his arm. They both raced to the door into the hall. “Close the door!” She yelled over the shrieks of pain and despair coming from the book. Ted slammed the door shut and just as the whirlwind hit it the screams died off, but they could see the smoke coming through the crack between the door and the floor, so they ran for it. They ran down the hall and up the stairs not stopping until they got to the fourth floor. They opened the first door they found and closed it quickly behind them. 

“What was that? Do you think it’ll travel this far?” Ted asked, trying to catch his breath. 

“It’s... I thought it was just something they told us to make us leave the books alone. We were told that if we touched the wrong book, there was one that would suck us into it and that it couldn’t be reversed. That it was like dying only worse. There’s no telling what it’ll do. We’ll just have to think of something else.” Andromeda answered. 

Ted just looked at her dumbfounded. Wanting to change the subject he asked, “This must be Regulus’ room eh?” 

“What tipped you off? The fact that it could be the head float in the Slytherin pride parade?” she joked. 

“Funny. Maybe there’s something in here that can help?” Ted started looking around the very tidy room. “This kid must be the neat freak of the family,” he remarked. 

“He’s Kreacher’s favorite. And now he’s the heir. Even if he was a mess, I’d bet we’d never know. He’ll have the elves picking up after him as soon as he moves an inch from where he was sitting. It’s crazy and overwhelming.” 

“You speak from experience, I take it?”

“Well, even being the middle daughter, I was still my parent's favorite, for a while at least. Bella has been mad since she was a child and my parents had basically sold Cissa to the Malfoys at birth. So, I was their only real chance of keeping the family line pure. Bella was five when I was born and she was already wretched, mean, and crazy. My aunt Walburga would have never let her marry the heir. So as soon as my mother was pregnant with me, she begged Walburga to let me marry her son. Sirius wasn’t even born yet, but that didn’t matter to them. Walburga agreed but only if I proved to be sane, poised, and beautiful. Cissa was born a year later and to be honest, I think my parents owed the Malfoy family something because she was betrothed to Lucius before her first birthday. When Sirius was born a month after I turned five, Walburga agreed to marry him to me as soon as he graduated Hogwarts, provided I was still a virgin and didn’t disgrace the family before Sirius left school. So I was doted on but also kept like a doll until I went to Hogwarts. I had never in my life had a moment of my own until I went to school. The house elves were always there, picking up after me, primping me. And there were tutors. Not just for school subjects, but for French, piano, singing, painting, and how to become a proper lady of the greatest wizarding house in Britain. It was madness. Just like this! This is complete madness! Only my family would try to punish me this way!” Andromeda was screaming now, barely able to contain anything inside. Her magic was flying out of her in sparks of red and the entire room was vibrating with her power. The trinkets on Regulus’ shelves started to move, they flew around the room in a dizzying pattern, striking anything in their path. 

“Andy, love, you need to calm down.” Ted tried to get a hold of her hand as he was talking “it’s ok, we will get out of this.” He said, looking into her eyes. He ducked as a silver mirror whizzed by his head and kept moving around the bedroom. “Come on Andy. We can do this together, I love you. I love you so much. Come back to me.”

“I don’t know how you could possibly want to be with me! This is what happens when you cross the House of Black. They torture you, they drive you insane, and if you’re lucky they’ll kill you to put you out of your misery!” She yelled at him as her magic continued to surge out of her. Ted was terrified but would never leave her like this. 

“You have to stop Andy. It’s not your fault. They are horrible, not you! You’re good. You’re so good. And so is Sirius. You both got out of there, and we will get out of here. And, I will never let them touch us again. I swear. Just...just please, I’m begging you, try to gain control over what you’re feeling. We can do this together, just breathe.” He pulled her in close, her magic felt warm at first and then started to increase in temperature until it began to burn. “Come on love. You’re in control. I love you. I don’t care about anything else.” The burning was becoming almost too intense to bear even through their clothes. “Please Andy, you’re hurting me. You have to get control.” She pulled her head away from his chest and stared up into his eyes. She looked shocked at first to see that he was in pain. Slowly her body stopped vibrating and was no longer burning to the touch. All of the items that were flying around the room stopped abruptly and came crashing to the floor. 

“Ted! I’m so, so sorry!” Andromeda said, crying. “I just got so angry and I couldn’t control it. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here. I love you. I love you so much.”

He kissed her lightly. “I love you too. Are you alright? I’ve never seen magic like that before. I’m a bit worried about you.”

“It’s happened before. Not to that extent, and not for a long time. It hasn’t happened since before Hogwarts. I’m sorry you had to see that. I do have control now, I swear.”

Ted nodded, “I know, love. Why don’t you sit down on the bed and I’ll see if there’s anything in this mess that can help us, yeah?” 

Andromeda sat down and Ted started going through the clutter. He picked up the silver mirror and looked it over. “This almost hit me in the head. Probably would have knocked me out cold like that rogue bludger in third year.” He said and went to set it aside. 

“Hand that to me please,” Andromeda asked. 

“Sure. Seems an odd time to check the mirror though.” He handed it over to her and she started to look at it more closely. Her eyes widened. “I know what this is! I’m not sure it’ll work, but it’s worth a shot. Sirius Black!” She said as she looked into the mirror. Fog appeared over the surface and then the smiling face of her cousin came into focus. “Happy Christmas Reg! Oh! Not Reg. Andy, why do you have Regulus’ mirror? Are you at Grimmauld?! Why would you be there on Christmas day? We thought you and Ted were having a lie in this morning when we left. I didn’t think we couldn’t find you because you wanted to have brunch with my dear monster of a mother!” 

“Sirius, listen to me very carefully. We are in Grimmauld, kind of. Some kind of spell was on the dollhouse. It’s trapped us inside, and they know we’re here. Horrible things keep happening and we don’t have our wands. You have to get help. You have to get us out of here.” she pleaded. 

“Holy fuck! It can actually happen then! My mother used to threaten Reg and me with banishing us to the dollhouse but I thought she was just out of curses to throw at us. I mean it seemed like a lot of work for her when she could just...” He trailed off. 

“Sirius, that’s probably not helping.” Andromeda heard Remus’ voice say. 

“Right, ok, so how the hell do we get you out?” 

“Sirius, if I knew that, do you think I’d still be sitting in a miniature version of hell?”

“Also right. Can you just sit tight? I’m going to try to contact Uncle Alphard and see if he can help.”

“Please hurry, there was something in a book downstairs that kind of turned into a screaming tornado and I don’t know if it’s going to make its way up here.”

“Really?! That’s real? I don’t believe it,” Sirius said, shocked but also intrigued. 

“Sirius! Please get help fast!”

“Ok, I’m going. Head into my bedroom. There may still be some wards on it that should keep you relatively safe unless Kreacher figures out that you are there. Which by the look on your face I’m assuming he has. Right, we are on it. Keep the mirror so I can communicate with you and you’ll hear from me soon.” The mirror fogged over again and there was nothing in it but Andromeda’s reflection. 

Ted and Andromeda walked down to Sirius’ room hand in hand and once inside sat on the bed. Ted put his finger under her chin, bringing her face up to his. “Are you ok Andy?” He asked. 

“I don’t know. I’m sorry about all of this. I thought that the day I left was the last we would ever hear from my mother. It’s been five years, Ted. Why now?”

“Sirius is set to graduate Hogwarts in a few months. I’m going to assume it’s because of Walburga. Maybe she was still holding out hope that you two would marry. That you would...that we would divorce or that I would die…I know it sounds crazy but they trapped us in the dollhouse of horrors, maybe they were hoping for something to happen to me.”

“I’m so sorry Ted. I never thought any of this would ever happen. I love you! We’ll get out of here and we’ll move on and it’ll work out right?”

“Of course Andy,” he said as he stroked her cheek. “It has to work out. You’re it for me.” He kissed her lightly and after a heartbeat, she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. 

“Eh hem!” they heard from the mirror. “Wow, fucking on your cousin/would-be husband’s bed is just sick, Andy. But I can leave you two to it if you want.” They heard Sirius say through the mirror. They pulled away from each other and Andromeda laughed. 

“We’re good Sirius. Did you find Uncle Alphard?”

“I did indeed. He’s gathering some supplies and a book and we’ll be popping over to yours soon to get you two out. Apparently, it’s not an easy spell to break, but he said he can do it. His mother apparently once banished my dear mother and yours to the dollhouse for a week when they were young. It must have been something to see.” Sirius said, smiling. 

“Sirius you are simultaneously the worst and best person,” Andromeda said. 

“What? It’s not like you're not thinking it too,” he replied. “Use the mirror if you need us but hopefully within the hour we’ll have you out and we’ll be opening presents and eating Christmas dinner.”

“Thanks again, Sirius. We are going to stay put in your room until then. See you soon.”

“There’s condoms and lube in the nightstand if you need it,” Sirius said with a wink and then was gone from the mirror. 

“Does that boy have any shame?” Ted asked

“He’s a Black. None of us have any shame.”

Half an hour or so passed and they hadn’t heard from Sirius. They were still sitting in his room when Ted noticed black smoke creeping underneath the door. “There’s no way. It must have filled the entire house to get up this far.” He said panicked. 

“What are you.... Oh no! Not possible. I thought… Shit... Sirius Black!” She yelled into the mirror as she and Ted moved closer to the farthest wall from the door in the bedroom. 

“Andy we are on it, jeez dark blood magic takes time, come on…” Sirius said. 

“Sirius, you need to hurry up! The smoke or whatever that book contains has made it up to us! It’s coming in from underneath the door frame!” 

“Can you stop it?” He asked

“No! Don’t you think if I could, I would have?!”

“Yeah that makes sense, ok, Uncle A you need to hurry it up, we have to get them out now!”

“Sirius, you have to break the connection in the mirror. I need your blood now to break the spell.” They heard Uncle Alphard say. 

“Your blood! Sirius, what is happening?” Andromeda shrieked. 

“Well you know, they may have blasted me off the tapestry and said that they had disinherited me, but they didn’t do it legally. As far as wizarding law goes I’m still a Black and entitled to Grimmauld should something happen to Reg. My blood should work. I have to go. Let’s hope it works and we’ll see you soon!” And then the mirror fogged over again and Sirius was gone. The inky black smoke was filling the room quickly now and creeping ever closer to where Ted and Andromeda were standing. 

“I love you. I’ll always love you.” Andromeda said as she clung to Ted. 

“Don’t start that, it's going to work. I love you too,” he said back as he kissed her temple. The smoke was surrounding their feet now and they could feel it pulling them into its swirling orbit.“Kiss me” Ted whispered and Andromeda tipped her head up and kissed him like it was their last moment on earth, which it very well could have been. The smoke had crept up to their waists and was starting to pull them apart. 

“Don’t let go of me, Ted!” Andromeda yelled as they started hearing the same awful, painful screaming they had heard in the library. The entire room went black and she felt Ted’s hand let go of hers. 

They landed with a hard thump on the floor of their study. They looked around them and realized where they were, kissed each other soundly and started to stand up. “Stay there. The spell isn’t finished, they have to destroy the dollhouse.” Remus said, coming to stand near them. As the couple got to their feet they saw Uncle Alphard making quick and sharp gestures with his wand while chanting and Sirius was doing the same, albeit shirtless and covered in runes written in what looked like his own blood. Sirius and Alphard were shouting now and the dollhouse was glowing beneath the black swirling smoke. Alphard yelled one more phrase in Latin and the house exploded into a million tiny pieces as Sirius collapsed to the ground and the others tried to cover themselves and him from the shrapnel. 

“Sirius!” Remus shouted as he ran to his boyfriend’s side. He grabbed Sirius and made him sit up. “Are you ok?” Remus asked as he started checking Sirius for wounds. 

“Of course Moons,” Sirius muttered. “Just a little peaky.” Remus smiled and kissed him and then held him tight. 

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” Remus said in between the kisses he was peppering onto Sirius’ face. 

“Uncle A!” Andromeda said as she ran over to him. “Thank Merlin you were able to help us!” 

“Yes, well, Sirius came to me in quite a state about it all. Luckily I had seen my mother do to my sisters what your mother did to you. I just had to tweak the spell a bit and use Sirius here to end it once and for all. No one will have harm come to them because of that thing ever again.” He said as he smoothed his waistcoat. “But alas children I must be off. I am expected to put in my appearance at Grimmauld soon or they will think something is amiss, and we can’t have that. We only have each other in this family. And I will always look out for the two of you. Sirius, get some food and some rest. You exerted a lot of magic today, you’ll need it. You’re more powerful than even I realized, but it will still have taken its toll. Happy Christmas.” He said and apparated away. 

“Wow. Your uncle is something huh?” Ted said, surprised at how casual Alphard had been about the situation. “Sirius are you ok?” he asked as Sirius was putting his tee shirt back on, the runes had disappeared from his skin, leaving pink, raised scars in their wake.

“Yeah, mate, what’s Christmas without a little blood magic sacrifice? I am starving though. Any chance we can stay for dinner?” Sirius asked. 

“Anything for you cousin. But let’s see what I can do quickly. I had planned on having a big dinner today for Ted and I, but it’s a bit late. Maybe we could get takeaway?”

“Whatever you have is perfect, thank you,” Remus said before Sirius could say anything. They followed Andromeda and Ted into the dining room. The table was filled with food; ham, turkey, dressing, puddings, casseroles, cakes, and candy. 

“Where did this come from?” Sirius asked. 

They saw a small card on the table and Ted opened it. “It’s been a trying day. I wish I could have stayed to enjoy the rest of it with you. Happy Christmas, Uncle A.” 

“He really is the only Black I like,” Sirius said

“Hey! I’m a Black!” Andromeda replied. 

“No, you’re not anymore. You’re Andromeda Tonks, and you are finally free of our horrible family. Now let's eat, I’m dying of starvation over here.” Sirius said as he sat down at the table to have Christmas dinner with a few of his favorite people in the world. 


End file.
